PRE-START BUSINESS INCUBATOR PROGRAMME
Through a range of professional, engaging workshops, masterclasses, one-to-one advice sessions and accountability sessions with experienced business owners who have been there and done it, we will help you build a solid foundation for your start-up business as well as develop your sales and pitching techniques
ONLY
£100
+VAT
Through classroom style lessons with your peers we will take a deep dive into all the components required to develop, organise, and strategise your business.
Commit to working from our business hub, on your business idea to give you true clarity on your business proposition. Work in our business lounge and soak up the atmosphere from other like-minded driven entrepreneurs who use our space regularly.
Each delegate is paired with a volunteer accountability partner. These are seasoned business experts and will give you support, insight and confidence to develop your business idea in greater detail. You will also have a regular check-in session with our team to help you with your progress.
Develop a pitch and deliver this to our panel members – a chance to practice your pitch in business opportunities. The top-scoring pitch will win a year’s membership of the co-working space.
Have you completed our StartUp & Go Bootcamp or Introduction to Social Enterprise course and want to develop your business further?
Our StartUp & Go Bootcamp, and Social Enterprise courses are run by experienced, professional business mentors who guide you through everything from research and forecasting to business planning, finance and marketing.
Attending our StartUp & Go Bootcamp or our Introduction to Social Enterprise courses are prerequisites for applying for the incubator programme. If you haven’t already attended these but have some experience in starting and running a business before, please get in touch with us to arrange a 1-1 to discuss further.
“Learning how to be emotionally intelligent and what the mind-set of an entrepreneur needs to be gave me the confidence to go for it!”
How is the Business Incubator program successful?
Former successful candidates include
Glenard Patnelli, a music industry producer and artist, who has helped co-found social enterprise Maroon Solis CIC provide support to homeless people and holiday activity programmes for school children to combat holiday hunger
Winston Douglas a retired firefighter who set up Croydon based Urban Logs selling seasoned firewood with a personalised delivery service
Social entrepreneur, Maria Skelly, who created Sackito, crafting fashionable and sustainable bags using recycled coffee bean bags and giving valuable work skills to prisoners.
Executive Coach, Diane Thompson of Courage Over Comfort Coaching providing coaching services to women and education professionals.
These and all of our participants should be highly commended for taking a vital step towards realising their business potential by taking part in this programme.
OUR 7 WEEK PROGRAMME INCLUDES:
Every business idea starts with a vision that the founder wants to achieve but the purpose and longer-term exit strategy are not always fully defined right at the beginning. This workshop helps you to consider and define your purpose, your ultimate end goal and ways to look after yourself while on your entrepreneurial journey
There will be highs and lows while starting and running your business but learning how to deal with issues that arise will help you succeed. This workshop will help you to consider the right legal structure to have, how to identify and deal with problems early on, identify the traits of a successful business owner
Having a clear understanding of the basic concepts of finance and budgets for your business including forecasting, income and expenditure is a fundamental part of running a business. This workshop will help you define and understand profit margins, how to automate your business financial transactions, opening and operating business bank accounts and understand the differences and uses of the key financial documents needed to run your business
Entrepreneurs need to develop and design the products and services they are going to sell, however, at the pre-start stage not all products/services are fully defined.
In addition, a lot of time and money can be wasted on trying to get it perfect first time. The development of a Minimum Viable Product helps to test out the actual need for it but also provides valuable feedback from early customer use. This workshop will help you to further define your products/services and help you to test out your idea
An understanding of the business’ intended and actual customers and what they want/need is essential to be able to sell the products or services being provided. Using the Value Proposition Canvas, this workshop will help you understand and map how your business’s products and services help solve customers’ problems which is key to positioning the business in the market.
Knowing how to price a product or service and be able to sell it are key to the survival of a business or social enterprise. Keeping up-to-date with competitors and identifying and managing key suppliers are all essential areas to remain competitive. This workshop will take participants through the processes of pricing, identifying leads through to upselling to existing customers and clients
Being able to get a product or service to customers is essential if a business is to be able to generate income and grow. Having an online presence through social media and having a website are key parts of your marketing plan.
This workshop will provide an understanding of the different platforms available, creating relevant content and how to measure the effectiveness of your online activity
Knowing how to price a product or service and be able to sell it are key to the survival of a business or social enterprise. This masterclass will take participants through the processes of pricing, identifying leads through to upselling to existing customers and clients
First impressions count and every potential conversation / meeting you have is an opportunity to sell your business. So you need to know how to talk about your business in a clear and engaging way. This workshop will help you structure and plan a pitch for when you need to talk about your business to new clients, investors or when hiring staff. You will also get the opportunity to practice your pitches
These will help you at the end of the programme where you will be able to pitch your business idea to a panel of experts to win a year’s membership of our Co-Working Space, worth £3000
But that's not all...
By participating in the programme you will also have the opportunity to use our state-of-the-art business lounge with high-speed broadband and PCs to help you work on your business plan, undertake market research and meet with other like-minded entrepreneurs.
BUSINESS INCUBATOR AUTUMN 2023 TIMETABLE
| Date | Day | Time | Group Event | Mentors Meetings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 September 2023 | Monday | 1pm - 3pm | Online Onboarding Induction | |
| 19th September 2023 | Tuesday | 9.30am - 12.30pm | Workshop 1: What is your WHY? | Accountability 1-1s |
| 1.30pm - 4.30pm | Workshop 2 - How to structure your start-up, avoid the pitfalls and make your business a success | |||
| 27th September 2023 | Wednesday | 9.30am - 12.30pm | Workshop 3 - Basic Finance and Budget concepts | StartUp Croydon Team 1-1 |
| 1.30pm - 4.30pm | Workshop 4: Defining Products/Services/MVP | |||
| 4th October 2023 | Wednesday | 9.30am - 12.30pm | Workshop 5: Identifying Customers | Accountability 1-1s |
| 1.30pm - 4.30pm | Workshop 6: Pricing | |||
| 11th October 2023 | Wednesday | 9.30am - 12.30pm | Workshop 7: Branding / Advertising | StartUp Croydon Team 1-1 |
| 1.30pm - 4.30pm | Workshop 8: Introduction to Selling | |||
| 18th October 2023 | Wednesday | 9.30am - 12.30pm | Workshop 9: Pitching Masterclass | StartUp Croydon Team 1-1 |
| 1.30pm - 4.30pm | Pitching Practice | |||
| 25th October 2023 | Wednesday | Pitching | Accountability 1-1s |
|
| 26th October 2023 | Thursday | Pitching | Accountability 1-1s |
|
| 1st November 2023 | Wednesday | Celebration / Graduation Day | ||
The cost to StartUp Croydon for running the Business Incubator programme is approximately £1,200 per person. However, we deliver this through our charitable aims, which enables us to offer a significant discount of 90% per person.
All we ask of each successful delegate is a financial commitment of £100 +VAT.
When you first apply to attend the Business Incubator programme, you will need to pay a registration fee of £35 + VAT which covers the costs of both the administration to process your application and the interview with you.
If you are successful at the interview stage and choose to continue, you will be required to pay the remaining £65 + VAT to secure your place on the programme.
Eligibility
If you are interested in applying for a space on the programme which is limited to a maximum of 6 participants, you should have:
• attended one or all of our one-day bootcamp courses or the introduction to social enterprise courses
• alternatively attended another introductory business course or done some research already into your idea
• a good business idea based on an identified need
• not started trading yet
Application Process
To apply, complete the application form by clicking the link below.